Free Will Denial, Punishment, and Original Position Deliberation Cover Image

Free Will Denial, Punishment, and Original Position Deliberation
Free Will Denial, Punishment, and Original Position Deliberation

Author(s): Benjamin Vilhauer
Subject(s): Criminal Law, Penology
Published by: Instytut Filozofii Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: punishment; free will skepticism; original position; retribution; Kant; Rawls; deterrence;

Summary/Abstract: I defend a deontological social contract justification of punishment for philosophers who deny free will and moral responsibility (FW/MR). Even if nobody has FW/MR, a criminal justice system is fair to the people it targets if we would consent to it in a version of original position deli- beration where we assumed that we would be targeted by the justice system when the veil is raised. Even if we assumed we would be convicted of a crime, we would consent to the imprisonment of violent criminals if prison conditions were better than the state of nature but deterring enough to prevent the state of nature.

  • Issue Year: 21/2024
  • Issue No: 79
  • Page Range: 91-106
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: English
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